1) Navigate to the bill status page of the bill you are interest in by doing one of the following;
a) for bills in the current session, enter the bill number in the first text box (bill number search) on the home page and hit enter
b) for bills in a prior sessions use the bill page from the top left link. Enter the bill number in the bill number area and click search
2) Once on the bill status page, scroll to the bottom of the page to find the history actions, which are in a green bar table.
3) Find the roll call you are interested in seeing, and click on the journal next to that history action.
4) Search the journal document using the tools provided by the browser you are using for the bill number, or the roll call number.
a) Searching techniques differ, depending on the browser used.

The first step in learning how to use the Michigan Compiled Laws is to
understand how the law is organized. Conceptually, the Michigan Compiled Laws
may be divided into a hierarchy consisting of three levels: Chapters, Acts, and
Sections:
Level One - The Chapter
Level Two - The Act
Level Three - The Section

Some MCL chapters have been further subdivided into portions called Divisions.Note: While the majority of chapters within the Michigan Compiled Laws
contain public acts, other items with legal significance of a general and
permanent nature are included. The current State Constitution, for example, may
be found in Chapter 1, entitled, "The Fundamental Law." Executive
reorganization orders are also compiled. These orders, which are issued by the
governor, make changes in the organization of the executive branch or in the
assignment of functions among its units, which are considered necessary for
efficient administration. Also, many chapters of the Michigan Compiled Laws
contain chapters or portions of chapters from the Revised Statutes of 1846, as
amended. The 1846 publication revised and recompiled Michigan law with one
result being the elimination of public act number citations. These provisions
from the Revised Statutes of 1846 deal with a diversity of subjects such as
local government, fraudulent conveyances, jails, and divorce.

When a bill is passed by the Legislature, signed by the Governor, and filed with
the Secretary of State, it is assigned a Public Act number, e.g., 1998 PA 23.
Each Public Act that adds, amends, and/or repeals sections of the Michigan
Compiled Laws is incorporated into the Michigan Compiled Laws database after
the necessary data processing is completed. If a Public Act is not scheduled to
take effect until a future date, the Michigan Compiled Laws database will
include both the current version of the affected section(s) (known as
"provisionals") as well as the version of the affected section(s) that will
take effect on the future date (known as "prospectives"), with appropriate
cross-reference "header notes" to guide the user. Therefore, in such cases, a
user may view a section of law both as it presently exists and as it will
appear on a future date. Further, if a Public Act repeals a section or sections
of law effective on a future date, the affected section(s) of law in the
database will contain a header note to that effect alerting the user to the
prospective action.

Are any Public Acts passed
by the Legislature not included in the Michigan Compiled Laws?

Yes. Certain laws enacted by the Legislature are not included in Michigan
Compiled Laws because they are not of a general and permanent character. For
example, local or special acts (which may apply only to one specific local
government unit or individual), appropriation acts (which provide funding on an
annual basis to governmental units), and land conveyance acts (which authorize
the conveyance of government property) are not included in the Michigan
Compiled Laws.

When I peform a Public Act MCL
Search, the results list displays some of the sections contained in the PA, but
not all. Why is this?

The Public Act MCL Search looks at each section's History to determine whether
or not to display it in the search results. It must do this or it wouldn't work
for amendatory acts.

So the sections you see in the search results are those that have the public
act for which you searched in their Histories. Usually, this means that these
sections were part of the original act (rather than being added later). To see
the full contents of the act, click on the link for the act itself, which is
usually the top list result.

Is there any way I can get the full
text of statutes as opposed to the excerpts I obtain from the website?

The text you find on the Michigan Legislature is indeed the full text of the
law. The word "excerpt" that you refer to is included following the statute
name above an MCL section merely to indicate that the section itself is an
excerpt of the entire statute. The section text presented, however, is
complete.

If you are interested in reading an entire statute at once (rather than
individual sections), navigate to the statute itself, then click the "Printer
Friendly" icon next to the document title.

Do you keep past year public act tables?
I need to determine what the bill number was for some legislation so that I can
read the legislative analyses. How do I do that?

The Michigan Legislature website maintains Public Act Tables for each year since 1997.
They can be found on the Public
Acts (Signed Bills) page.

Also, on the Public Acts (Signed Bills)
page, you will see the Public Act Legislative Document Search. If you know the
public act number you are looking for (and it was passed since 1997), enter the
number and year into this search to display the bill status page (containing bill
versions, history, and analyses) for the bill of origin.

For tables prior to 1997, contact the State Law Library at the Library of Michigan at (517) 335-1480, or email them using this COMMENT FORM.

I am looking up an act, and some of the
sections reference MSA numbers. Where can I find text for those MSA numbers?

MSA numbers (Michigan Statutes Annotated, an alternative numbering system to
MCL numbers) have been deprecated by the Legal Editing division of the
Legislative Service Bureau and are no longer supported.

Is there any place on this site to
view the "substitutes" (e.g. S-3) that are referenced in the Journals?

Yes, for some of them. Look in the history actions of the bill you are interested in. This is a table near the bottom of the bill status page. If they are available, they will be linked here. If the substitute bill is not linked, request a substitute for this bill and the Library of Michigan will respond.

I was attempting to locate a
particular bill in the legislature. I did not know the bill number. What can I
do?

When attempting to locate a bill without knowledge of the bill's number, try
the various search tools on the Bills page.
Searches on the Bills page allow you to
locate bills based on sponsors, subject categories, keywords, etc.

Each time you use one of these searches, the results page will include a column
containing the digest for each bill which should assist you in locating the
desired bill.

If you are unable to locate the bill(s) you are seeking, contact the State Law Library at the Library of Michigan at (517) 335-1480, or email them using this COMMENT FORM.

If clicking on links in your notification email always displays the Page Not
Found on the Michigan Legislature website, there is probably a mismatch between
the default email view in your email software and the format of the
notification email. By default, the Michigan Legislature notification emails
are sent in Html. If the default view in your email software (GroupWise,
Outlook Express, Eudora, etc.) is set to Plain Text, then the links will
sometimes be too long to fit on a single line; the remainder of the link ends
up on the next line and will not be included as part of the link when you click
on it, resulting in the error. There are two ways to correct this...

1) Change the view in your email software from Plain Text to Html. The steps to
accomplish this vary depending on your email software, but usually this can be
changed under a menu called View.

OR

2) Change the format of the notification email being sent by the Michigan
Legislature website. This is a registered user preference that can be set from
the Notify page. The link to the Notify page can be found in the horizontal
menu bar beneath the header on every page of this site, but only if you are
logged in with your registered username and password.
NOTE: If you change your notification email preference to Plain Text, the URLs
sent in the emails will not be active links. However, most email software will
recognize the URLs and will automatically turn them into active links.

Public Acts exist in two different forms:
1) Bill Documents that have been approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the Governor, filed with the Secretary of State, and assigned a Public Act number. This version is as it was originally passed and is considered a legislative document. Use the Public Acts (Signed Bills) page to find legislative public act documents. Select the session you want from the "session" drop down box. If the session you seek is not listed, please contact the State Law Library at the Library of Michigan at (517) 335-1480, or email them using this COMMENT FORM. Document delivery fees may apply.

2) Public Acts also become part of the Michigan Compiled Laws. This version is as it exists today and contains the changes that have been made to it by way of legislation. This version is available if it was not an appropriations PA and as long as it has not been repealed by other legislation. Use the Public Act MCL Search page to find public acts within the Michigan Compiled Laws.

To find a bill from a prior session, select the "Bills" menu option on the left side of the screen. On the bill search page, select the
session you want from the "session" drop down box. If the session you seek is not listed, please contact
the State Law Library at the Library of Michigan at (517) 335-1480, or email them using using this COMMENT FORM.

No special permission is required for linking to the Michigan Legislature website. If a Short Link is available on the page to which you would like to link, it is recommended that the Short Link be used. If available, the Short Link feature () is labeled "linkable" and can be found just below the large, bold, page title.

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The Michigan Legislature Website is a free service of the Legislative Service Bureau in cooperation with the Michigan Legislative Council, the Michigan House of Representatives, the Michigan Senate, and the Library of Michigan. The information obtained from this site is not intended to replace official versions of that information and is subject to revision. The Legislature presents this information, without warranties, express or implied, regarding the accuracy of the information, timeliness, or completeness. If you believe the information is inaccurate, out-of-date, or incomplete or if you have problems accessing or reading the information, please send your concerns to the appropriate agency using the online Comment Form in the bar above this text.